A security company wants to use aviation technology as a way of fighting crime in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg.

Image: Fidelity Services Group
In partnership with UDS Group, a South African company specialising in unmanned aerial vehicle systems, Fidelity Services Group says it will introduce a squadron of drones, operated by trained personnel, that link directly to company’s mobile command centre.
“The command centre is linked to a tactical response unit for both reactive and proactive purposes. Customers contact a call centre to activate the drone response and on sites where Fidelity ADT already provides guarding, the drone response will be worked into the incident-escalation procedure.”
On their website, UDS said their drones are equipped with electro-optical (EO) and infrared (IR) sensors which feed data to highly skilled operators who “verify the breach and qualify the breach using aerial surveillance and then direct ground tactical forces to the targeted area”.
A two-month trial was launched in the greater Fourways area and is expected to be extended to other suburbs and shopping centres from August onwards.
Fidelity Services Group CEO Wahl Bartmann said the two-month pilot programme will be integrated with fibre-connected Vumacam surveillance system and “in strict accordance with all privacy and aviation restrictions and laws”.